TONY ANTONIO: Antonio Banderas gets a little help from a monkey finger puppet ? and wife Melanie Griffith ? at the 2003 Tony Awards, where he was nominated for best actor for his role in the revival of Nine (and lost to Hairspray's Harvey Fierstein).
(Sara Jaye/Getty Images)]]>

Old Rush
Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith make quite the classic Hollywood coupling at the Tony Awards in New York. Classic as in a remake of Sunset Boulevard , that is. Banderas could play the young hunk in his dark slim pinstripe suit and Caesar haircut. And Griffith's clearly decked out as fading silent screen queen role in a too tight, tad tacky green sparkly gown, sprayed stiff platinum waves and harsh crimson lipstick. Talk about typecasting!]]>

STEPHEN M. SILVERMAN
people.com

In a rash of unusual notices to greet her official opening as Roxie Hart in the 6-year-old Broadway revival of "Chicago," Melanie Griffith has gotten a mixed bag of reviews.

Basically, she has Valentines from New York's male critics -- Ben Brantley of The New York Times, Clive Barnes of the Post and Howard Kissel of the Daily News -- and the back of the hand of a female critic, Linda Winer of Newsday.

"Griffith isn't a dancer, she isn't a singer and, aside from the stunt sentimentality of her Broadway debut across the street from her husband, Antonio Banderas, in 'Nine,'" insists Winer, "she has no business being in a dance-driven classic created by Bob Fosse."

Brantley, who considers Griffith, 45, "sensational" and the other guys disagree, though all three do admit she has trouble in the singing, dancing and acting department -- but her star power still shines through.

"Possibly the most convincing (Roxie) I have seen," says The Timesman. "This doesn't mean that she gives the most electric or crowd-stirring interpretation of the aging jazz baby turned killer." Brantley says what she has is "powerful and instinctive empathy for the part."

Barnes notes that the audience laps her up. "They cheer with grateful ferocity," he writes, while the usually mellow Kissel opines, "Griffith is a star, The audience is content just to be in her presence."

But the best notice is in Variety. In its Broadway box office scorecard, it shows that last week "Chicago" played to 100.9 percent capacity, which translates into standing room only.
]]>

BUSY BEES: Broadway darling Antonio Banderas (making a huge splash in the musical Nine,) wife Melanie Griffith (knocking 'em dead across the street in Chicago) and Griffith's daughter with Don Johnson, Dakota, 13, attend the New York City premiere of Banderas's made-for-TV film, And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself.
(Rick Mackler/GLOBE PHOTOS)]]>

imdb.com

Spanish movie hunk Antonio Banderas is in negotiations to play Napoleon in a new stage musical. Spurred on by his Broadway, New York, success in Nine , Banderas is keen to find other stage projects in which to star - and his next big production could be as the infamous French leader. Banderas says, "I have some proposals now. I'm looking at a new Cy Coleman musical based on Napoleon. I'm going to take time to revise this and see if it's the right vehicle." And that's not the only historical project Banderas is keen to work on - he's also planning to make his directorial debut with a movie about legendary Spanish Caliph Boabdil. He adds, "He was the last caliph of the Kingdom of Granada, after the Arabs were in Spain for eight centuries. He was not meant to be the king but his father was expelled from the throne and, accidentally, fate put him in a place where he didn't want to be. He was a mathematician, astronomer, poet and humorist. He had to deal with the last remains of eight centuries of Arab domination in Spain. He's a guy who saw an entire kingdom falling apart. It's a very Shakespearean kind of drama."


Has anyone seen Nine??


]]>

http://www.banderas-mall.com/gallery/classic8/angel.JPG

princess37945.4202199074]]>

According to Ted C. of E!, Melanie doesn't let the mommies come into the house when her kid's friends come over to play. "....Now, those who have had their pusses front-door slammed insist...

Melanie is simply overly concerned about the house being neat, doesn't want people to see anything outta joint/whack/place. But the gals with the shapelier figures know otherwise."

Also Ted says there's a sculpture in the bedroom of Antonio's you-know-what.

I saw Antonio interviews on The Actor's Studio the other day, he seems like a pretty normal down to earth kinda guy.

15th annual GLAAD Media Awards Photos
Photo(s) by Ken Kwok - © 2004 - Hollywood.com, Inc

The 15th Annual GLAAD Media Awards
Trophy, Wife: Antonio Banderas displays his two best assets: his GLAAD Award and wife Melanie Griffith.

ANTONIO'S HOMECOMING: Wearing traditional garb, Antonio Banderas participates in a Holy Week processional in his hometown of Malaga. The handsome Spaniard will next be heard (but not seen) as Puss-in-Boots in Shrek 2 due in theaters next month.

(Queen/WireImage)

Some pics of them watching the Easter procession in Malaga here.

Be sure to click red arrow top right for other pages of pics.

BANDERAS FAMILY CELEBRATES: Antonio Banderas and Stella del Carmen, his 7-year-old daughter with wife Melanie Griffith, hang out the window of their Malaga, Spain, hotel to check out the city's annual Easter week procession.

(Marbella Photo/REX)

"It was very easy to convince me to do the movie because if somebody gives me the opportunity to laugh at myself, I'm right there."

--Antonio Banderas, about taking the role of assassin Puss-in-Boots in Shrek 2, out in May (people.com)

Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith at the 12th Rainforest Foundation Benefit Concert

EOnline.com

CRIME SPREE: Per the Hollywood Reporter, Melanie Griffith starring in Heartless , an original TV movie for CBS in which she'll play a fictional attorney who stalks, manipulates and kills men who either get in her way or tried to leave her.

Liz Smith
NY Post

SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS: Antonio Banderas , who was so delicious as the voice of Puss in Boots in "Shrek 2," has a line of successful fragrances in Europe. This week he launches Spirit Antonio Banderas in the United States. In fact, men who wish to give women the vapors a la Antonio can pick up his scent in stores Wednesday.

Banderas is also Emmy-nominated for his ruggedly unperfumed role in "Pancho Villa as Himself."

LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER
Now that's one proud mama: Melanie Griffith looks on lovingly at daughter Dakota, 14 (dad is Don Johnson), at a Teen Vogue Young Hollywood party in West Hollywood on Thursday. Dakota is following in her parents' footsteps ? she's an aspiring actress.


Holly crap, I haven't seen a pic of Dakota in years, she sure has grown up! Melanie looks lind of scary-mom in this pic!

Put on some hose Melanie or wear a longer dress.

Those legs!

Terrible shot. Or, boy does she look worn out.

I think Krista that Melanie has had so much plastic surgery over the years that it's finally just falling apart on her at one time.

Hollywood hates actresses that age gracefully you know.

Her daughter sure is a pretty young lady though.

NO XXX FOR ANTONIO
November 23, 2004
Provided by: [National Enquirer Online]

No one's ever labeled Melanie Griffith a prude, but she got a shock after momentarily losing hubby Antonio Banderas while browsing for records at Virgin Megastore. Somebody pointed her upstairs, where she found El Hunk-o poring over porn videos! Melanie looked none too pleased as she beckoned him back down to the music department!

Too many drugs and plastic surgery.

Banderas and Griffith See Dakota Application Turned Down
imdb.com

Married couple Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith have had an application to move into New York's notorious Dakota building turned down - because residents don't want another John Lennon "incident". Ex-Beatle Lennon lived in the exclusive Manhattan residence for years before he was murdered at its entrance on December 8, 1980. The Dakota's inhabitants are anxious to avoid a repeat occurrence and so refused Banderas and Griffith's request to purchase a $3.8 million apartment. One says, "How could they be serious? The building is fickle when it comes to celebrities. They don't want another Lennon incident." The Dakota building was also the setting of director Roman Polanski's classic 1968 film Rosemary's Baby.

Antonio Banderas – with daughter Stella, 8, and wife Melanie Griffith following behind – takes the family out Sunday for Aspen's Winterskol festival. The actor wasn't just a spectator at the three-day event: His fragrance, Spirit, was a sponsor of the annual fireworks display Saturday.

Hollywood couple Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas watch the annual Domingo de Ramos Procession with their 8-year-old daughter Stella in Banderas's hometown of Malaga, Spain, on Palm Sunday.

NY Post

MELANIE Griffith - the over-the-hill actress who plays an
over-the-hill lingerie model on her new WB Network sitcom "Twins" -
enraged staffers at a photo shoot to promote the show last week when
she wouldn't stop smoking. When her wardrobe minions advised Griffith
that her incessant puffing was ruining the pricey outfits she was
posing in, the "Working Girl" star snapped, "I'm a [bleep]ing movie
star, you're going to ruin my day over this!" "Twins" producers quietly
took her aside afterwards and asked her to stop smoking at work. She
responded by saying that "everyone knows I smoke," and claimed she'd
been assured she would be allowed to light up wherever and whenever she
wanted when she signed on to do the show. "You'd think she knows better
by now," a snitch told The Post's Don Kaplan. "California is a
no-smoking state." On "Twins," to debut this fall, Griffith plays a
former underwear model rockily married to the head of a lingerie
company. Their hot-blooded, teenage fraternal twin daughters have
nothing in common and must deal with a wacky mother whose marriage is
falling apart. A rep for Griffith did not return calls or e-mails.

Griffith Plays Mom to 'Twins'

By Jay Bobbin
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - She's still a "Working Girl," but now, Melanie Griffith is calling television her home.
A regular on the late-'70s sitcom "Carter Country," the Oscar-nominated actress has focused largely on feature films since. She was pitched various series over the years, but she declined until "Will & Grace" mentors David Kohan and Max Mutchnick pursued her for "Twins."

The new Friday-night WB Network comedy casts Griffith and Mark Linn-Baker ("Perfect Strangers") as married lingerie moguls who turn over their company to their extremely dissimilar twin daughters (Sara Gilbert, Molly Stanton).

Griffith's "Twins" role as lovable, somewhat daffy ex-model Lee Arnold suits her ideally, but she maintains it wasn't created for her. She says she has avoided such characters "for a long time, really, except for 'Crazy in Alabama' (the 1999 movie directed by her husband, Antonio Banderas). This is all new to me. It's done really fast, and they change things on the spot while you're shooting. It's hard, but I'm really grateful that they asked me to do it.
"I'd been looking at (doing television) for a couple of years, and the minute I read 'Twins,' I loved it. Especially when I met Max and David ... they're just awesome. I did a pilot once, but it was terrible and it didn't get picked up, and it scared me. That was a bad experience, but the writers on this are hysterical. It's like a really well-oiled machine."

A mother of three, Griffith doesn't mind playing a mom: "It is a little freaky to have 27-year-old daughters [on the show]. It's inevitable, though, so why not go for it?"

Griffith made her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in "Chicago" two years ago, but she admits she's still adjusting to performing before live audiences during "Twins" tapings. "I'm getting there," she says with a laugh. "It's scary. It's just different, you know? I really love it, and the more time that goes by, the more fun it is and the more I understand it. You can't know it until you actually experience it."

Luckily for Griffith -- and she knows it -- she has veterans of television comedy by her side, and she finds tapping into the experience of Gilbert ("Roseanne") and Linn-Baker invaluable. "They're great, and they're beautiful, and they're funny. I really hope this 'goes' and stays on the air." At the very least, Griffith hopes the show lasts long enough to accommodate guest shots by her spouse and also by her mother, actress Tippi Hedren ("The Birds").

However, a "Twins" appearance by the actor Griffith married twice isn't likely. Don Johnson also has a new WB show, "Just Legal," and Griffith has resisted all-too-obvious notions of shared promotion for their series. "We're trying not to do that," she says. "It's silly, because we haven't been together for 11 years. There was a WB press party, and we missed each other."

Doing a television show seems to fit Griffith's present lifestyle as performer, parent and wife. "So far, so good," she states. "My kids are all starting school. My oldest son is starting film school in New York, so we had to get him an apartment and get him set up. Antonio is in Spain to direct a film, and at the same time, he has to do publicity for his new 'Zorro' movie. It's a little bit hectic, but I just have to get the schedule down and get comfortable with it. Everything else, I can organize really well. Once I feel good about it myself, I think this will all be fun."

Having started her career as an ingenue in mid-1970s movies such as Gene Hackman's "Night Moves" and Robby Benson's "One on One," Griffith has not been shy on the topic of ageism in Hollywood. "I think it's strange," she says of the professional fate of many actresses, "because all people get better and more interesting as they get older, yet [many producers] want people with no lines on their faces. It's not like that in Europe."

One of Griffith's high points clearly remains "Working Girl," the Mike Nichols-directed 1988 comedy about a secretary who makes herself a stand-in for her absent boss to set up a business deal. The film earned the actress a Golden Globe Award, an Oscar bid and an enduring image.

"I really appreciate that people remember me for that movie and still enjoy it," Griffith reflects. "I'm grateful to my public or my following or whatever you want to call them, the people who like me, because that's why I do this. I like to make people feel something, and 'Working Girl' hit a lot of people in that way."

Despite a career that spans more than three decades, Griffith doesn't look back often. "I think I will when I decide to write a book," she says. "I've been asked to, and I think someday I will." For now, "Twins" and family life are her priorities.

"I love my husband, and I want to be with him. I love my kids, and I want to be with them. That made 'Twins' sort of the perfect thing to do, and if it keeps going, it would be a good thing. I'm a much better person when I work."

just a comment... as someone who goes on "cigarette binges" now and then when i'm really stressed out and as someone in my late 30s i can tell you that cigarettes totally ruin your face... melanie is a heavy smoker and that just ages the hell out of you...plastic surgery and botox cannot undo cigarettes....when i go on a binge, i see wrinkles and blotchiness and it just ages you....people in their twenties it doesn't really show but after about age 35 everything you ingest in your body, pills alcohol food, etc totally shows... a word to the wise!!

He looks like a complete greaseball and she looks like an aging beauty who is trying to hold on to her youth my destroying her looks and wearing trampy clothes/ makeup. UGH. What a couple!

Antonio Banderas does the dance of joy Tuesday after receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. "It is an honor and privilege, thinking that I arrived to this country and this city 16 years ago with practically no money in my pocket," said the Spanish-born actor, whose movie, The Legend of Zorro, opens Oct. 28.

You can check out info about his new play here.

He is a greasy rat. And his wife is a freak! I pity their child... and the other children in Stella's class; I'm sure she's a nasty little kid because of her parents' problems!

He was so good looking when he came onto the Hollywood scene in Desperado, now he looks like a big dork that does whatever his evil wife tells him to do.

ttp://jam.canoe.ca/Movies/Artists/B/Banderas_Antonio/2005/10/23/1274...
l


Banderas rides again as Zorro


By JIM SLOTEK -- Toronto Sun


LOS ANGELES -- Some sequels seem fated by unconscious acts. Antonio
Banderas, for example, kept his sword from 1998's The Mask Of Zorro. Why,
he's not sure.


"I didn't practise very much during seven years. We (he and wife Melanie
Griffith) didn't have an intruder in the house or anything like that," he
says, talking up his return to the mask and cape in the long-delayed
followup The Legend Of Zorro.


"It is true that swordfighting is like riding a bicycle, once you do it, you
never forget. But you do have to refresh. We have new choreographies. It is
a dance. A dance with an edge -- and that edge is potentially very
dangerous.


"It was much more painful this time because I'm 45. And when you crash, your
bones start telling you you're 45. But also this movie is harder than the
first in other aspects."


These days it's hard to tell what 45 is supposed to look like. But the fit,
tanned guy in jeans and denim shirt sitting in front of me is hardly a case
study in middle age, despite what his bones say.


He is correct, however, about The Legend Of Zorro being a bigger fish. It
was a sequel that seemed to not want to happen, despite the original's $200
million box office and obvious audience appreciation of Banderas as Don
Alejandro de la Vega (a.k.a. Zorro, the swashbuckling hero of old
California) and a then-unknown Catherine Zeta-Jones as his fiery leading
lady Elena Montero. Money talked some more in the form of DVD sales, to the
extent that the exec producers (among them a guy named Steven Spielberg)
decided to make it happen.


With nearly double the budget of the original (some of it to pay the much
higher salary commanded these days by the Oscar-winning Zeta-Jones), The
Legend Of Zorro has more of everything, including sword fights, explosions,
runaway trains and evil villains -- bent this time on bringing the U.S. to
its knees.


"There is a moment you feel the movies don't belong to you anymore,"
Banderas says. "They belong to the audience. And a movie like this, the
audience is the one that decided in the end if there is to be a sequel or
not.


"There were many of the same people, not only the people in front of the
camera, but the same cinematographer, the same art director, the same
casting director. It was kind of a family thing."


A family thing indeed. In this movie, Alejandro and Elena are now married
and have produced a 10-year-old mini-Zorro, a son Joaquin, played by Mexican
child actor Adrian Alonso (the movie was shot in San Luis Potosi, Mexico).
Unlike the original, in which villains -- notably Anthony Hopkins -- were
dispatched by stabbing thrusts, there is no bloodshed in this movie, the
better to snare that elusive PG rating.


It's in keeping with Banderas' family-man image these days. After all, the
Spanish-born actor -- who has a young daughter, Stella, from his nine-year
marriage to Melanie Griffith -- was a big hit as a thickly accented,
swashbuckling Puss In Boots in Shrek 2. He's already at work reprising the
character in Shrek 3, and depending on how that does at the box office,
there are talks to give Puss his own movie.


"The fact that for me, who arrived in this country 16 years ago without
speaking the language, that they want to use me just for my voice, kind of
makes me proud somehow," Banderas says.


"My daughter definitely prefers Puss In Boots. But when we were watching
Zorro, she was elbowing me all the time and saying, 'Is that you, Popi?' And
every time it's a stunt (with a stuntman), so of course I say, 'Yes!' "


Which is not to say that his entire career will be PG. Banderas, whose wife
starred in his directorial debut (1999's Crazy In Alabama), will be taking
to the chair again to direct El Camino de los Ingleses. The movie will shoot
next month in Spain with an all-Spanish cast.


"Spanish actors, Spanish production, everything's Spanish," says the actor,
who was first noticed in raunchy Pedro Almodovar films like Tie Me Up! Tie
Me Down!


"I need to do it. I have been so much out of the Spanish film for a while,
they didn't feel good about my persona of just working in America all the
time. It was like a duty. It is harder, darker, more sexual than the movies
I have done here."


He's also wrapping up co-starring in the dark indie film Bordertown for
director Gregory Nava, again filming in Mexico -- this time with Jennifer
Lopez.


"I play a Mexican journalist investigating murders, and she's also a
(Latina) journalist but she wants to be American and grows her hair blond,
the kind I have seen in this country. At the end she has to recognize her
origins and meld with that."


Also in the works, a Broadway musical version of the Johnny Depp movie Don
Juan DeMarco. "The plan is to do it using music written (for the film) by
Michael Kamen, he's dead now unfortunately, and Bryan Adams. I would go to
hell for (director) David Leveaux," Banderas says of the man who directed
him to a Tony Award nomination in 2003 in Nine: The Musical.


"What I have learned over the years, is so vast. So many things happened in
my life, my personal life, from directing my first movie to going to
Broadway. I have done practically every genre, horror movies like Interview
With A Vampire, (movie) musicals like Evita, many things, it is true. It
gives me some kind of vertigo to think all this happened from the first time
I step in this country.


"I don't think it's over, I keep going, working, I feel better than ever."

http://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/2005/10...s/scoop//2005...
01_scoop.txt


Antonio's gun control


"Zorro" star Antonio Banderas says that although he has mastered
swordsmanship and boxing on-screen, he wants nothing to do with guns once he
's left the set. The Latin hunk told The Sun that while he's learned to
shoot a gun for various roles he's played in movies, he doesn't believe in
guns in real life and refuses to have one in his house. Banderas says that
even the idea of going to a shooting range is very unappealing.

Hollywood hunk ANTONIO BANDERAS has hit out at Hollywood studios for refusing to hire his wife MELANIE GRIFFITH.
Acting work has dried up for the 48-year-old screen siren, something Banderas blames on Hollywood's ageist attitude towards women.
He says, "She deserves to work, she is a wonderful actress. Hollywood is very cruel with women that cross 40. With women it's very strong and it's very unfair sometimes.
Hollywood just goes for fresh flesh. I feel bad for her because they are just missing actors who still have something to say."

He's partly right, but her awful plastic surgery is significant factor.

(Yahoo.com)

Banderas Finds 'Zorro' Stunts Exhausting

Antonio Banderas says doing most of his own stunts in "The Legend of Zorro" left him exhausted by the end of the shoot.

"I did ... as much as I could (to) go around the insurance company," the actor told AP Radio. "Acrobatics, I cannot do. I mean, I can do but I'd be talking to you now without teeth."

Playing the masked hero isn't new to Banderas. As a child, he and his brother used to take on the character's persona.

"We had this sword made of plastic, and we'd swordfight in the terrace," he revealed. "I have pictures!"

Taking on the role as a boy, however, didn't compare to the experience as an adult.

"You'd have to swordfight for 13 hours, it's six o'clock in the morning, and everybody's sleeping in the corner and you have to be Zorro, with ten guys coming at you!"

Another challenge was doing scenes with a horse. The stallion, Tornado, was played by nine horses ... and Banderas had to develop relationships with all of them.

"Each one does something totally different; some of them play drunk, others run beautifully," he said. "But if you don't spend time with them, the horse doesn't recognize you and throws you (off)."

"The Legend of Zorro" opens in theaters on Friday.

(MSNBC.COM)

Antonio Banderas is blasting the way that Hollywood treats older women. “Sometimes you feel like they just go for fresh breasts,” the “Legend of Zorro” star told the London Mirror. “Getting old is a good thing, a natural thing, and we should respect it,” he says. That, he adds, is why he has forbidden his wife Melanie Griffith from getting more plastic surgery. “This lust for beauty is a terrible thing.”

That, and a voice that sounds like she just sucked the gas out a helium ballon.

I actually caught an episode of her show Twins, the Halloween one. Was kinda cute show

(IMDB.COM)

Banderas Threatens Boys and Burglars with Zorro Sword

Spanish film star Antonio Banderas has kept the original sword from The Mask Of Zorro as a deterrent for intruders or boys who mess with his 9-year-old daughter. The protective father, who lives with his actress wife Melanie Griffith and their daughter Stella, has kept the weapon in a safe place and feels more secure knowing its there if he needs it. He says, "Even though we filmed the first Zorro movie nine years ago, I kept the sword. I won't say where I keep it, but it's in a strategic spot in my home. I truly pity the burglar who shows up at my house! Though I wonder what I'd tell the authorities... 'Officer, he tried to rob me, so I cut a giant Z into him!" He adds, "If a boy gets out of line with my daughter, I will take down that sword and say, 'Son, step into my den for a little talk!'"

(Handbag.com)

Banderas And Griffith's 'Screaming' Rows

Antonio Banderas and his wife Melanie Griffith regularly row and "scream at each other" - but they always fall in love again after fights.

The actor refuses to pretend his relationship with actress Griffith is perfect, but insists it's healthy to bicker.

The 45 year old says, "I have never painted my relationship with my wife as perfect. Quite the opposite. We have our crises where we scream at each other - she screams more than me. But we come back together and you discover that you have the capacity of falling in love with your own wife."


© Copyright World Entertainment News Network.

She is dreadful and I think he must cheat on her like crazy. What a terrible situation!

Holly Molly

The only person who's refused to sign off on their Punk'd appearance is Melanie Griffiths who burst into tears during the 'punking' and carried on crying harder after the reveal, sobbing and collapsing on the floor threatening to sue Aston Kutcher personally.

It is possible to see the footage if you blow someone from MTV.

I am assuming that it should be somebody who has a parking space closest to the door?

I heard that Michael Vartan also refused to have his punk'd shown.